The last time Aamir Khan and Yash Raj Films collaborated was for Dhoom 3. The result was box office success but a critical failure. It was, without question, the weakest film in the franchise. Now the writer-director of Dhoom 3, Vijay Krishna Acharya roped in Aamir Khan for another film, the high profile Thugs of Hindostan and once again the result is mixed, leaning towards really bad.
The period saga, also starring Amitabh Bachchan and Katrina Kaif and based on Philip Meadows Taylor’s 1839 novel, Confessions of a Thug, did not get the kind of reviews Aamir Khan has gotten used to.
Writing for NDTV, Saibal Chatterjee writes about the film: “Big, bloated, bombastic, Thugs Of Hindostan is a period saga that banks solely upon action and spectacle for impact. The characters that populate it are, like the thousand ships that the film launches in the service of a bitter early 19th century battle between the fast-expanding British East India Company and a band of intrepid rebels who refuse to be enslaved by a foreign power, as flimsy as cardboard. Thugs Of Hindostan barely ever hits terra firma. And when it does on the rare occasion, it fails to stay rooted long enough for those moments to make a difference.”
Trade analyst Taran Adarsh was disappointed as well, writing: “Some engrossing moments in the first hour, that’s about it… Formula-ridden plot, screenplay of convenience, shoddy direction are the main culprits, (sic).”
Writing for DesiMartini, another critic notes, “Aamir is hailed as a perfectionist and the first question you would want to ask him after watching this movie is – where exactly were you when they were reading the screenplay?”
In between there are some good reviews but overall the verdict is not on the side of the film – even if it does end up collect millions at the box office.
